Saints march on with a comprehensive victory over an Arsenal side that looked lacking in discipline and enthusiasm.
This was one of those satisfying victories when you know that every member of your team has put in 100% effort and got what they deserved and in this case it was 3 points for Southampton Football Club.
The 2-0 scoreline doe not tell the whole story though, although Saints could have won the game in the end by 4 or even 5, Arsenal could just have easily won the game had it not been for the resolute defending and the top knotch goalkeeping from Fraser Forster when the defence was breached. But that is what winning football matches is all about, it is a team effort and sometimes it is about keeping it tight at the back and taking your chances.
The opening goal is a contender for goal of the season from several angles, firstly for the way Sadio Mane chased what appeared to be a lost cause and got in ahead of the goalkeeper and defender, his mere pace and presence caused panic when really it should have been dealt with, then with seemingly no angle and no support, Mane curled in a sublime shot where he used the wind to take it into the goal.
Szczesny is being blamed for the goal and there is no doubt he was caught in two minds, but to blame him would be to take away what mane contributed to putting him in that position, what looked routine suddenly became a crisis due to the Saints striker.
From then on Saints looked solid and full of confidence throughout the game, as I have said there were moments when Arsenal could have got back in it, but it would not be a game of football if there weren't chances at both ends.
Again top marks to Ronald Koeman for not only selecting the right side for the occasion but making changes at the right times. Florin Gardos was superb and looked like we might just have a decent defender on our hands and Koeman knew just the right time to bring him off and put on Yoshida with 20 minutes left to combat an Arsenal attack that although lacking confidence only needed a goal to perhaps restore it and make it a tense ending.
But Gardos was not alone in his performance and there wasn't one Saints player out of the 14 who featured who didn't do his job and do it well, it is even more astounding when you consider that we had Schneiderlin, Clyne & Cork missing not to mention Rodriguez, if we can beat the likes of Arsenal without them and add our new signing Eljero Elia then we could spring even more surprises in the final quarter of the season.
But back to New Years Day and this superb victory, I said before we had to beat one of the so called top clubs and we did this with style, once Dusan Tadic poked in the second there was no way Saints were going to let things go, indeed it could have been 3 or 4 with several chances squanderd, not least Pelle who didnt have the luck, hitting the post in each half as well as a chance cleared off the line when he should really have scored with Arsenal in disarray, but although Pelle was not as sharp in front of goal as usual, the fact that he got those chances to start with and his general link up play meant that he played a big part in this victory.
We start 2015 now with an advantage in the chase for fourth, all of our rivals in the chasing pack bar Spurs dropped points so overall it was a good day in terms of League position and we can take a break for the FA Cup knowing that we took giant strides not just in terms of league position but as a side overall, people forget this side has only been together five months and is still learning, it passed a few more tests against the Gunners.